This came from a graduation address I wrote for my latest class of Grade 8 students who graduated from middle school to high school. I wrote it and included it in the speech to encourage them and send them off with some last creatively-spun, faith-inspired analogical encouragements (of which I had become a little prolific for, so it was quite fitting). Then, I was encouraged to share it with a wider audience by someone who wanted to share that same analogy with a friend, so I adapted it a bit and here we are! I hope these words benefit you as well, in one way or another 🙂

Did you know that life really is like a video game? 

Some of us start at level one, and easily find tutorial NPCs who are meant to guide and level us up so that we feel ready to tackle whatever boss monster might be next. We soar through the levels, feeling like we’re playing on easy mode or experiencing a double XP boost.

Some of us start at level one still, but the game is set to hard mode right away – whether because of a disability, a trauma we’ve experienced, or something else entirely; it can feel like a struggle to find those same tutorial NPCs, to learn those same skills, or to defeat the same boss monsters. The difficulty is cranked up and it can feel like you’re failing again and again.

And some of us may have started on easy mode and flew through the levels at first, but later on something changed and the difficulty shifted to hard (or even Legendary!) for a time because of something incredibly challenging in life. All of a sudden, even gaining one level is a huge struggle that feels so unattainable.

For people soaring through the levels: that’s the perfect opportunity to dive into someone else’s game and help them beat a boss they’re struggling with. You’ve already experienced that challenge, you know how to approach it and can help them achieve victory. For those who feel like they’re eternally playing life on hard mode: just know that it’s not you, and it’s not God. He created this world, but the devil kind of gave it a virus – AKA sin – causing these difficulties. Luckily, Jesus wrote the ultimate video game walk-through guide on how to navigate this world, and left the perfect, most powerful Easter eggs for us to find, collect, and use to beat the game. And for others who feel like the difficulty just randomly switched – often, it’s only for a chunk of time. Once we break free of that game area or that storyline or gain that new skill, things will change again.

Ultimately, no matter what difficulty it feels like we’re playing on, we’re each only responsible for our own dialogue choices and our own decisions in this video game that is life. We could choose to just not play the game, but that won’t change anything. We could choose to sabotage other players to help make us feel better or to take out our frustrations on others, but that will only leave us feeling empty and alone. Or, we could look up helpful hints, ask others who have already played it for tips and tricks, and we could take another look at a level we already beat for something we may have missed. We can even contact the Developer of the game and ask for customized assistance.

Basically, you get to choose how you play this life and we all take our turns making mistakes. But, we will each also experience periods of crazy levelling happening and oddly enough, this can happen when we feel the most challenged. It all depends on how we choose to respond to that challenge: do we meet it and try again, even when we’ve felt thrashed by the same boss over and over?  Or do we walk away, defeated, never to make another attempt at victory? There are certainly times to take a break to regroup, or call in a friend or fellow adventurer, but…

Don’t. Give. Up… Ever. Otherwise, you’ll never get any of those achievements for progressing through the game. 

Whatever level you’re at – whether it’s Level 13, 30 or 63 – God has placed tutorial NPCs (or mentors) in our life. Go to them for wisdom and power-ups. Don’t be afraid to spend time doing side quests and helping out characters that ask for it (since that’s often where the most uncannily satisfying narratives can be hidden away if we only keep an eye out for them). Take moments to climb to the highest vista in the game, take in the beautifully rendered view and then launch yourself from it on a glider with glee. 

And remember: if you ever find yourself lost in the map, drowning in quests, or feeling unable to get past a major boss, just remember that God has placed everything you need to either rest, fight a hard battle, or spend some time simply enjoying the mechanics that have been designed for you to take part in. 

June 27, 2024

In case you like Lofi video game music, here’s what I was listening to as I wrote some of this.